WRAL Tech Wire

Entrepreneurship survival 101: It’s all about selling

Opinion: The one skill which entrepreneurs need is something they don’t teach in business school—selling. The ability to persuade people to believe in you is a necessity. That’s because sales is not just about selling things for money. Selling is about life.

‘Stealth disease’ – Secrecy’s price can be venture ending

Commentary: To be known, you have to have a great story and tell it to the right people. And to build a great product, you need to get all the feedback you can from potential customers, marketing experts, venture capitalists, lawyers and accountants.

Flying under radar can be costly

Want job creation? Let’s give visas to startup founders

Analysis from Vivek Wadhwa: Instead of encouraging the first brain drain in U.S. history, the country should create a program to welcome funded startup entrepreneurs.

Startup Visa Web site

Winner’s curse: Why losing a B-school biz plan competition is better than winning

Analysis from Vivek Wadhwa: If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, don’t win a business plan competition. If you do win, your first act might be to hire a CEO with industry experience. And win or lose, the most valuable lessons you’ll learn will come more from playing the game than from coming up with the best plan.

God is your co-pilot – and stuff that piggy bank

Vivek Wadhwa commentary: In a research project, the majority of 549 company founders told us that their most important success factor, after “experience” and “management team," was “good fortune." Many respondents wrote in comments stressing the extreme importance of faith and God. You didn’t think that successful entrepreneurs were this pious did you? Neither did I.

The VC, the professor and the Valley Of Death

Analysis: The next Internet, semiconductor or breakthrough in MRI technology may already have been discovered. It’s just languishing on the shelves of the university research labs you drive by on your way to work every day.

Entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa accuses VC report of being ‘voodoo economics’

Is Miss Nebraska an Entrepreneur?

Sue Drakeford's production company hosts its own pageants and teaches others to gain the confidence and skills to compete